June 30, 2007

Saturday Readings

How much do you know about protecting yourself from phishing? Probably not enough according to Barry.

Ever wonder why that article you read last night on the New York Times changed when looked at it in the morning? It's because the original piece hadn't passed through the editorial process and that could prove to be a dangerous liability.

Avedon excerpts part of a remarkable piece by Harper's Scott Horton where he looks at the troubling state of justice in our country today. One point he makes is that the amount of real corruption in our government (largely driven by the corrupt practices of the Republicans) has resulted in the belief that any politician accused of corruption is automatically guilty.

And then, still more troubling, there is White House intervention to persecute their political opponents: the telltale sign of tyranny. Georgia Thompson was a state contracting officer in Wisconsin prosecuted for corruption when she awarded a bid to a contractor that had made campaign contributions to the state’s Democratic governor. The fact that the contractor was the low bidder was apparently considered irrelevant to the prosecutor....It’s a strong testimonial to the fact that in America today, a jury will readily accept that accusations of corruption against a political figure are true, even when there is no evidence, and no corruption.

But the Georgia Thompson case is not the worst. Far, far more troubling still is the conviction of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman in a prosecution in Montgomery. When this case got started, I was ready to accept what those Montgomery jurors did – namely, what on earth could be surprising about allegations that a political figure sells appointments for money? Isn’t that indeed just the way our system works? And shouldn’t we throw the book at them when they’re caught doing it? Truth is, I never much cared for Mr. Siegelman anyway.

Horton connects the Siegelman case to what Karl Rove did to corrupt the judicial system in Alabama, just as I did in my post below. The Siegelman case is clearly the smoking gun in the GOP plot to create a corrupt justice system and shows the ruthlessness of today's Republican Party. In fact, before the Republican operative testified about Rove's connection some were willing to do violence to keep her quiet.

And something nastier: after her intention to speak became known, Simpson’s house was burned to the ground, and her car was driven off the road and totaled. Clearly, there are some very powerful people in Alabama who feel threatened.

I find it so hard to understand those who think that our courts have no say in Abu Ghraib. Congress passed laws making the Geneva Conventions the law of *this* country -- and yet the Army and the Administration continue to exhibit contempt of three separate courts over the Abu Ghraib material. I want those contractor/CIA faces to become as well known as those of Charles Graner and Lynndie England. I want the victim faces blurred and the rapist perpetrator faces and bodies sharpened until every man, woman and child in this country would recognize one of them standing on a street corner.

I want them tried by us before we end up with the disgrace of having them tried at The Hague by Germany or Iraq or Syria. Remember the Israelis who dedicated their lives to hunting down war criminals? The day is coming when the hunt will be on unless we take care of it first.